East Carolina University College of Nursing celebrated men in nursing at the fall Unity Day event held on Thursday, September 27, 2012. The biannual celebration highlights diversity in the College of Nursing.

Minority Nurse reports that 168,181 Registered Nurses are men, or 5.8% of the total nursing population. In contrast to this statistic, men make up 9.35% of the student body at East Carolina University College of Nursing.

One of the first things nursing alumni notice when they visit the college is the diversity change from decades before. There are noticeably more men in our building. Just a few years ago, it was normal to have 3 or 4 men in a BSN class of 130 students. Today, there are 15 or more men in each BSN class. This semester, the president of the senior class is a male, and the MSN and PhD programs also have strong male representation. The leadership potential of our male students is recognized by the student body as a whole.

The keynote speaker of Unity Day was Dr. Gene Tranbarger, College of Nursing faculty emeriti. Dr. Tranbarger is a national leader in the American Assembly of Men in Nursing (AAMN) and he was key in establishing the ECU chapter of this organization. In fact, the AAMN recognized the College of Nursing as the Best Nursing School/College for Men in Nursing in 2004, the first year the award was given.